All the Mistakes That Are Fit to Run

The mistake: “How are we going to search effectively for natural resources if schools trying to teach modern geology must give equal time to claims that the world is only 6.000 years old?”

The Copy Vigilante says: I know you probably don’t like numbers. That’s why you’re in the writing, editing and journalism business. But still, when presenting a number in an article let’s get it right!

The Copy Vigilante says: Why should we believe anything in this article when nbcnews.com can’t even get the person’s name right? The first four times he’s mentioned his last name is “Davis”. But in the second-to-last paragraph he becomes “David”. One of the first things my editor told me years ago at a major daily newspaper was this: “Make sure you always get the person’s name right!”

The mistakes: “Michael’s first child—Prince Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr., born on in February—is mentioned by name… ”

“Others have confirmed that the King of Pop was in the Big Apple that day.”

The Copy Vigilante says: A big beer company once ran a “born on” ad campaign where they bragged about the freshness of their beer. The editor who worked on this story must have had a few at lunch because he/she couldn’t figure out if the article should get Prince’s precise birth date or just the month. As for the hyperlink, the editor forgot to underline “Big” and make it a link to NYC. Although something tells me their “editing” software decided to make this just a link to the company Apple. Hey Forbes, turn Hal off now!

The mistakes: “A romantic gesture went awry off the coast of Rhode Island Monday when a plane towing a “Will You Marry Me” crashed into the water.”

CBS Boston affiliate WBZ reported that the Coast Guard rushed to rescue the pilot, the only one on board the plane, at around 4:10 p.m. ET after receiving a radio transmission

GENERIC life preserver ring coast guard rescue drowning (CBS/AP)

The Copy Vigilante says: A “Will You Marry Me” what? Salt and Pepper shaker set? Clown hat? Duck-billed platypus? My point is it could be anything given the fact that a very important word is missing here (at least they got it right in the headline.) In the next paragraph a period is missing. Is it just me or don’t sentences need punctuation? The last mistake is the caption under a picture of the Coast Guard logo and a life preserver. While they sound like tags they’re not because they don’t link to anything. And if they were tags they don’t belong under a picture. Instead it’s just a babbling line of copy.

The Copy Vigilante says: I think Ray Bradbury’s fascination with space got to the writer and editor of his NY Times obituary. Ahem. There should not be a space between the last word of a sentence and the punctuation, nor should there be a space between an open apostrophe mark and the word following it.

The mistake: “In my later years I have looked in the mirror each day and found a happy person staring back.” he wrote in a book of essays published in 2005. “Occasionally I wonder why I can be so happy…”

The Copy Vigilante says: The screaming period that stops this sentence dead should be a comma. Hello cnn.com, did any of your editors take Editing 101?!